Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Exploring the rapid rise of Billy TK’s NZ Public Party, report finds senior military officers misled ministers over Operation Burnham, and Lake Taupō water monitoring to be led by iwi. Within the space of a few months, Billy Te Kahika Jr has gone from being … Read more
The Operation Burnham inquiry found serious failings in how the defence force operated, but none of this ‘transparency’ would have come to light if it hadn’t been for two journalists fighting tooth and nail to hold those in power to account, writes Amnesty International’s Meg de Ronde. When attorney-general David Parker stood up yesterday morning … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Third Oranga Tamariki inquiry announced, Herald highlights iniquities in health sector, and significant new claims around Operation Burnham. A third inquiry into Oranga Tamariki has been announced, and this one looks like being the most significant. It is being launched by chief ombudsman Peter Boshier, and Radio NZ reports … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Call for Hit and Run inquiry to be open and transparent, scale of risk from rising sea levels revealed, and paracetamol supplies could run short. The long-awaited inquiry into the events described in the book Hit and Run has got underway. To recap: Hit and Run was a book … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Hit and Run inquiry launched, the government moves against offshore oil exploration, and there’s an outbreak of measles in the South Island. The government has launched a long-awaited inquiry into the events detailed in the book Hit and Run. The book, by investigative journalists Jon Stephenson … Read more
A year after the publication of a book alleging civilian deaths in a botched NZ raid in Afghanistan, the NZ Defence Force has quietly conceded its operation was in the same village depicted by the authors, and it makes the case for an inquiry overwhelming, argues Toby Manhire. “The central premise of Nicky Hager and Jon … Read more
The actions described in the book Hit & Run could constitute war crimes under the Geneva Convention. The case for an independent inquiry is now becoming overwhelming, writes geopolitical analyst Paul Buchanan. Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson make serious allegations in the book Hit and Run. Among other claims, the authors argue that the New … Read more
The former defence minister says civilian death suggestions are plausible, and that NZ needs to ‘find out what really happened’ in Operation Burnham. Wayne Mapp, the New Zealand defence minister at the time of the Tirgiran Valley raid at the heart of the claims in Hit and Run, has admitted in a blog post at … Read more
The Chief of NZ Defence has dismissed Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson’s book, pointing to ‘major inaccuracies’, saying Operation Burnham took place not in the villages they identify but instead in Tirgiran Village, 2km south. And it turns out Stephenson himself said, in a 2014 report, that the raid occurred in Tirgiran Village. We asked … Read more